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“Let’s actually use this time to address the bigger issues that are out there,” Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak says, with an eye to crucial byelections in Vaughan and Kitchener-Waterloo on Sept. 6.

That means a reminder of embarrassing government troubles such as the ORNGE air ambulance service, eHealth Ontario and the costly cancellation of a power plant near Sherway Gardens.

“No one wanted to go this route,” acknowledges Government House Leader John Milloy, referring to the controversial bill the government wants to force on holdout public school unions and boards that have not reached contracts yet.

With the government hoping to keep Vaughan in Liberal hands and looking to gain Kitchener-Waterloo from the Conservatives in a tight race to win a de facto majority in the legislature, the teacher wage legislation has infuriated powerful teachers’ unions that have been Liberal allies for years.

The battle seems incongruous after what McGuinty, the self-styled “education premier,” has touted as nine years of labour peace in schools systems after hiring more teachers, reducing class sizes and bringing in full-day kindergarten.

And it has other public-sector unions wondering what’s in store for them as the Liberals struggle to slay a $15-billion deficit.

“The message … is that we need our partners in the delivery of public services that Ontarians rely on to be part of the solution,” says Education Minister Laurel Broten, whose government spends $10 billion a year on debt interest alone.

With MPPs working the barbecue circuit in their ridings — or trying to cram in a last-minute holiday and get their own kids ready for school for Sept. 4 — the tall and thin Milloy has become known in the wood-panelled hallways of the legislature as the man who killed the last precious week of summer.

But the stakes are high for a scandal-plagued administration that has only managed to get three bills passed since last October’s election — frustrating to the government after two terms of majority rule.

Ten pieces of legislation have been stalled, including a highly-touted McGuinty campaign promise to give seniors tax credits for renovations that will allow them to stay in their houses and apartments longer, avoiding costly nursing homes for as long as possible.

“As you saw in the spring, legislation moves through a minority parliament as slow as molasses,” Milloy notes wryly, adding that the teacher wage bill will not be a confidence vote that could force a general election.

However, in a change from the spring when NDP ideas like a wealth tax were adopted to get the provincial budget passed, all signs point to McGuinty’s Liberals working with the Conservatives to approve the teacher wage bill.

Hudak prefers sweeping legislation to freeze the wages of all public sector workers to help get Ontario’s finances in check, but said he will be “fair and reasonable” in assessing the teacher bill.

Paraphrasing his political idol, former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, Hudak proclaimed: “If you get half a loaf, take it.”

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath warns that the Liberals and Tories are making a huge mistake in the legislation, because the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, Coran’s OSSTF, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees — which represents custodians, library technicians and other school support workers — are threatening to take the province to court for abrogating their Charter rights to bargain collectively.

“What this is about is a government that is prepared once again to spend massive amounts of tax dollars to cure their own political fortunes,” Horwath says of the byelections and the seemingly out-of-character gambit with teachers.

The dig refers to the $190-million cost to taxpayers for the government’s cancellation of a natural-gas power plant just northwest of Sherway Gardens mall, in order to shore up four Liberal ridings in Mississauga and Etobicoke in last fall’s whisker-close elections.

The Ontario Medical Association has already launched a Charter case against the government over stalled negotiations for a new contract.

Broten maintains the teacher legislation is justified and can withstand a court case because it was based on a deal reached with 55,000 teachers in the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association after 300 hours of negotiation.

The pact freezes wages — except for younger teachers moving up through the salary grid — in exchange for three unpaid days off and halving the number of annual sick days to 10, which will no longer be eligible for cashing out upon retirement if they have not been used. It will be imposed on other education labour unions if they don’t agree to similar deals with school boards by year’s end, with incentives to settle before Sept. 1.

“If there is a day when we need to defend this legislation in court, we will do that,” Broten says.

As one Queen’s Park insider noted, the Liberals may no longer be in power if that happens because observers widely expect an election after next spring’s budget based on the acrimony that surrounded the passage of last year’s fiscal blueprint.

With both opposition parties certain to give McGuinty and his cabinet ministers a rough ride in the legislature this week given the stakes in the byelections, it’s unclear how many days it could take to pass the teacher bill.

Hudak has been raising concerns about possible “loopholes” and “back doors” in the teachers’ legislation that could allow anomalies, such as the $36 million in bonuses awarded last year to 8,700 managers in the public service who were supposed to be subject to a wage freeze.

Horwath concedes there’s little she can do if the Conservatives side with the government.

“The Liberals have the opportunity to get the legislation through the House in a pretty expedited fashion, so we’ll see the extent to which they’ll have the co-operation of Mr. Hudak.”

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